


She Sees It All

by Jassmine



Category: Ancient Greek Religion & Lore, The Iliad - Homer, The Oresteia - Aeschylus
Genre: Canon Compliant, Canonical Character Death, Children, Difficult Decisions, F/M, Fate, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Love, Non-Graphic Violence, Prophetic Visions, Underage Rape/Non-con, War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-13
Updated: 2020-05-13
Packaged: 2021-03-02 17:40:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,264
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24160720
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jassmine/pseuds/Jassmine
Summary: How a prophetic gift was filling her pieces of future started to fly through her head.(After tagging this I feel like I wrote a really gory story… but it’s really very non-graphic and all the violence is cannon compliant, I think.)
Relationships: Apollo/Cassandra (Ancient Greek Religion & Lore)
Kudos: 6





	She Sees It All

**Author's Note:**

> Please note, that English isn't my first language and I don't have a beta. So, I will be glad for all your suggestions and comments on grammar (or whatever else you feel like commenting).
> 
> Since learning Cassandra’s and Apollo’s story, I was fascinated by it and I always wanted to figure out a version that would satisfy me even a little bit. Apollo is no saint, but he didn’t try to rape Cassandra after she refused him, why? We know he doesn’t have an issue with that (He tried to rape Dafne and I am pretty sure, she wasn’t the only one). I am not saying that my solution is perfect, there are definitely holes in it (big holes…), but I am still quite happy with it (because I was able to finish it, I wasn’t expecting that at all).

When Cassandra is making her decision, she sees all of the possible futures. She hears what people will say about her. _Opportunist. Whore who couldn’t keep her word. Liar. Wicked. Ambitious. Bitch who doesn’t know her place. Cunning. Cold. Proud. Selfish. Witch without a piece of a women in herself with a cursing touch. An amazon who wouldn’t be broken under the severe pressure._ Cassandra heard all of that when she made her decision.

There is some truth on all of the rumours – it was ambitious and maybe even a little bit selfish to ask for such a gift a man she already desired so much. But is it really so bad to want more from live? To want more than a handsome husband and twenty children? To want to see the world? To experience something? To be unique?

And besides she was convinced that Apollo will leave her someday. Sooner or later she will have to live without the godly tinsel. Was it so bad to want to keep at least a little piece of him? Would someone object if everything turned out differently?

But this was never a possibility in the future, so Cassandra could never be sure.

How a prophetic gift was filling her pieces of future started to fly through her head. Golden in the beginning how everything was illuminated by Apollo and happiness and their shared love. She saw them making love and it was just a glimpse, but she was overwhelmed anyway. And then she saw him, their perfect son, living image of Apollo aside from his dark curls which were all hers. And she loved him, she loved him so much, because to her he was already alive.

And then everything darkened because Paris came to them and her father was resolved that he could fight the destiny. He trusted her and Helenus that Paris means danger, but his heart was too soft, and he couldn’t do what needed to be done and accepted him to the family instead. And this Cassandra was a mother and contemplated escaping while it was still possible, but in the end… she couldn’t desert her family. Still hoping that something could be done. And the war is coming. And the war is here. And her son is growing so quickly, because these dark times aren’t fit for children and heroes are growing up quickly when it is needed.

And he is just five, but he looks like fourteen years old. And she is pregnant again and all she sees is a darkness and death. Her brothers dying like flies and she knows that they don’t return when they are marching to their last battles. There is nothing she could do, and she is going insane. And her little girl is born, all Apollo with his glowing golden curls except for nose which is all her own. And she is hardly baby at all, after a week she looks like a one year old, after a month she looks like three-year-old and after a year she is a fourteen years old maiden.

Her son who looks like an adult now is fighting for Troy and she is dying with fear even though she knows he have his father’s protection. And her fear was justified because one piece of a future later, she is holding her dead son in her arms. He is just seven years old, even though he is taller than her. And she is blind with a grief and everybody is celebrating ending of a war, but she still knows this isn’t it. She is trying to tell them, but they thought her insane with grief and she just don’t have a strength to argue with them and she is pregnant again and she knows that her end is near and Apollo is gone, mourning on his own and she needs him so much right now.

And then the city is flooded by them and she knew this will happen and managed to escape to temple of Athena with her daughter. She known they would never desecrate temple of Athena, she was their goddess, their sponsor. She thought they are at least a little safe there, but then the future started shifting and Cassandra was terrified. They were trapped here. They were trapped here, and Achaeans were barbarians. Ajax the Lesser entered the temple and Cassandra tried to shield her daughter with her body. All their fight was for naught. He raped her daughter right there on Athena’s altar, made her watch the whole act. And when her turn came, she was so numb with pain and grief she wasn’t even fighting. She was looking into Athena’s eyes instead asking her to make him pay for it. She lost her unborn child right there on the floor of the temple and the only thing that was holding her alive was her daughter. She lives and Cassandra must take care of her.

In that moment Cassandra was done. All she wanted was to stop these images and feelings which flooded her head and body, but she couldn’t stop it. She couldn’t stop it and she must see it to the grim end.

They aren’t capable to punish Ajax, but Cassandra knows Athena will punish them all for that and it lessens the pain a little. They divide the women among themselves like livestock and she couldn’t be even sicker anymore. Diomedes claims her daughter and Cassandra is horrified because she is glad it is him; he could keep her daughter alive; he is sensible, and she sees his safe sale home. She is horrified because she is glad for her daughter’s slavery. King Agamemnon claims her, and she sees her own death then and everything skips forward.

She is staying in front of the Mycenae gates, her daughter is dead then, one of the casualties of travelling. And she sees her own death, waiting behind the gate, and all that will follow. And at this point she thought that the fate couldn’t surprise her, but then she sees the world burning, the sun crushing to the ground, Apollo raging, monsters plundering and plague spreading. She sees Apollo blaming Zeus for everything but knowing he can’t defeat the most powerful god of all. But destroying is so much easier that winning and Apollo doesn’t care about anything right now. And she sees it, she sees the end of the world, she sees his death, she sees everybody’s death. And that’s the end of it.

Cassandra sees all of it when she makes her decision. And she isn’t sure if anything can be prevented, but she knows she must change things and it hurts so much, because she knows what she is giving up. She loves him now; she loves their children. Maybe deserting Troy would be enough, but she knows she couldn’t risk it and then there is only one option left. She hurts him. She hurts him so badly he would never forgive her. And he curses her in return and there is no turning back now.

* * *

Apollo watches her standing in front Mycenae gate. He watches her die. He thought it would be freeing, maybe even satisfactory. Instead he feels sad and hollow. There is still withered flower of his love deep in his heard. His anger cooled down at last and he doesn’t understand her any better now. He still can’t understand what happened then. The truth died with her and he is prepared to let it go, but before that he’ll make sure that she will be avenged.

**Author's Note:**

> This was hard to write… because the time problems… I know she sees things she isn’t supposed to (momentary decisions), and then doesn’t see things you would expect her to see… But I wanted to write a whole picture, a version in which none of them had to be villain. Maybe it is overly romanticized, but… I don’t know. I always wanted to write a story in which Cassandra sees something in the future and that is why she decides to break her promise…. I don’t know, what do you think?


End file.
